Advancements in technologies and methodologies for education

Motivation of the Track:

Education is rapidly evolving, under the push of both social and technological changes. In fact, like many important aspects of our lives, also education is continuously being challenged and transformed by Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Many courses are nowadays organized either completely online, or with much multimedia content available online, possibly also on public platforms. The growing presence of MOOCs and other online educational platforms, has provoked many effects also on traditional courses, which more and more face a growing expectation of innovations by their students. Also the “feral” diffusion of online social networks among students is rapidly altering the paradigm of collaboration beyond the traditional organization of classroom lessons, exams and home activities.

On the other hand, Information and Communication Technologies are built on new digital skills and new ways of thinking, which are often missed by many students and citizens at large. In fact, education systems should adapt not only for benefitting from new ICT developments, but also for forging the new architects of the digital world. Unfortunately, it is still widespread the misconception that learning to use digital media (i.e., digital literacy) is enough. Informatics, as a scientific discipline, requires instead the knowledge of: algorithms; concepts of performance and complexity; data structures; concurrency, parallelism, and distribution; formal languages; abstractions.

The track targets researchers, doctoral students, people from educational institutions and from the multifaceted world of education in general. Papers on the various aspects of technological innovations, new collaborative platforms, educational methodologies and tools, on the field experimentations and experiences are welcomed. Of particular interest are studies related to tools and methodologies for the education to problem solving, coding, and other aspects of the so-called Computational Thinking. The track also welcomes work in progress and position papers.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to​:

Online learning environments and communities

Massive open online courses

New educational methodologies

Advancements of the concept of Flipped Classroom, through innovative technologies